Wise Shares Slide After Belgian Money Laundering Investigation Reported

Yahoo Finance UK reported Monday that Wise Group shares plunged sharply after the fintech company confirmed it was cooperating with Brussels prosecutors. The stock dropped nearly 20% at its intraday low before settling around 14% lower by afternoon trading in London.

What Triggered the Sell-Off

The sell-off followed a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report alleging that Belgian authorities opened a probe last year. The investigation reportedly centres on concerns that Wise accounts may have been exploited to move proceeds of crime. The transactions under scrutiny are said to total approximately 500 million euros, or roughly £433 million.

Wise confirmed the inquiry but was careful to frame its cooperation as routine. The company said it was working with the Brussels prosecutor’s office to address queries about its operations. It added that no formal findings had been communicated to the firm so far.

Background on Wise and Prior Regulatory Issues

Wise was founded in 2011 under the name TransferWise as a low-cost international money transfer service. The company has expanded considerably and now serves more than 19 million customers globally, processing around 4.7 million transactions every day.

The firm relocated its primary listing to New York last month, citing access to deeper capital markets and a broader investor base. It retains a secondary listing on the London market. Wise’s European operations are headquartered in Belgium, from which it services customers across the EU.

This is not Wise’s first brush with financial regulators. In 2022, Abu Dhabi’s financial services authority fined the company $360,000 for breaches of anti-money laundering requirements. That penalty was modest relative to the firm’s scale, but it established a prior compliance record that investors may now weigh more heavily.

Wise Pushes Back on Wrongdoing Suggestion

Wise pushed back firmly against any implication of misconduct. The company stated that regulatory and law-enforcement queries are a standard part of running a licensed financial services business. Such requests, it argued, do not by themselves indicate AML failures or wrongdoing of any kind.

The firm also highlighted its internal compliance investment. It said approximately one-third of its entire workforce focuses on protecting customers from financial crime. Wise described its process as verifying every customer before account opening, then continuously reviewing transactions against hundreds of live data points.

“Combating financial crime is an industry-wide challenge,” Wise said, according to Yahoo Finance UK.

The Brussels prosecutor’s office has not issued a public statement on the matter.

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